Archive for December, 2011
Friday cat blogging — Happy New Year!
Posted in Friday cat blogging on December 30, 2011 | 7 Comments »
Quote of the day
Posted in QOTD on December 26, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Food for thought (pardon the pun!) from Dr. John at PaleoTerran:
[Industrial foods] can be more than just sustenance. You eat Paleo because it gives you the nutrients you need. But the reason industrial foods flourish in our culture is because they do more than nourish. When you’re bored, industrial foods entertain – just think of the fun shapes they take, from animal crackers to alphabet soup. When you’re sluggish, industrial foods provide a boost, whether as a caffeinated beverage, or a sugary treat. And when you need comfort, industrial foods have a variety of meals to make you feel better. … Industrial foods make a sedentary existence bearable.
Quote of the day
Posted in QOTD on December 20, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Version 1.0 of Paleo - lean meats and big salads with no starches and low saturated fat - is frankly incoherent and totally made-up. It does not duplicate any ancestral diet by anyone anywhere. Boyd Eaton (and obviously later Barry Sears) thought the macronutrient ratio was the main feature of diet that determined health.
The kernel of Paleo, and the only thing worth preserving of it, is the insight that we have deviated in important ways from ancestral diets, which we DO have evidence were healthier in some ways.
Therefore, we should try to figure out SCIENTIFICALLY, without just-so stories and without “tightly defined” systems that are basically made-up, exactly what those elements are that are messing us up.
In the meantime, the precautionary principle dictates that whole foods simply prepared are the best thing to eat.
~ Kurt Harris via a Carbsane blog comment
2011’s things I’m thankful for
Posted in Me, me, me on December 18, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Well, I’ve got a couple of posts still percolating in the draft queue (including one on food addiction that I’m particularly excited about), but it’s clear that they are going to have to wait until 2012. My plan is to go mostly off the grid between Christmas and New Year’s, so things will likely be quiet here.
And between what I need to get done for work before then and the presents that still need wrapped, things will likely be quiet before Xmas too.
So, to more or less close 2011 on Weight Maven, I thought I’d share a few of the things I’m thankful for:
- The Jaminets’ Perfect Health Diet. A little over a year ago I started doing a primal diet based on Kurt Harris’ Archevore Diet. This worked pretty well, but then PHD was published shortly afterwards and between the book and the blog, I was soon hooked … and adding some safe starches to my diet ;).
More importantly, Paul has been an amazing resource at the PHD blog. It boggles my mind that he still has the time to address the many, many reader questions he gets!
- Neurofeedback. In her book Primal Body, Primal Mind, Nora Gedgaudas mentions that she used neurofeedback to address her battle with depression. A few Google searches later, I learned that neurofeedback has been researched for addiction and I found a local practitioner. My goal: relief from a lifetime of compulsive overeating and food addiction that ‘clean’ eating alone didn’t provide.
Since I finished my 60 sessions (last April), I’ve had a couple of episodes of major stress-related overeating, but they have not resulted in completely falling off the wagon and re-gaining every lost pound and then some. It is not hyperbole to say it’s been a life changer for me.
- Egoscue. Thanks so much to reader Kirk who suggested Egoscue back in September when I was in the midst of major league back pain after AHS11. The ortho I had seen wanted to fuse most of my lumbar spine (after scaring me silly about the prospect of losing bowel and bladder function). Fortunately Doogie Howser (not his real name), the neurosurgeon I saw said that recommendation was bordering on criminal. Doogie agreed that I could take some time to do physical therapy and lose some more weight before considering microsurgery.
It’s been about two months and I’m much, much improved from where I was even before heading out to AHS. Egoscue’s basic premise is that your vertabrae do what your postural muscles say, so if you address the latter, you improve the former. What’s involved are specific exercises that are done every day and target those muscles. It’s slow, but I’ve got time … and the prospect of avoiding back surgery is quite motivating!
- Weight Maven commenters and readers. There is certainly something to be said for the sheer catharsis of writing. But there’s something more to be said for connecting with real people. I greatly appreciate everyone who has taken the time to write a comment here in 2011. You guys rock! And those of you who read or share without me knowing you, you guys rock too!
Happy holidays everyone … see you in 2012!
Quote of the day
Posted in QOTD on December 13, 2011 | 4 Comments »
Your brain is made out of food. What’s more important, having 200 cable channels or feeding your brain the nutrients it needs?
~ Tyler Graham, co-author of The Happiness Diet
This is not necessarily an endorsement of the diet, though any approach that promotes a nutrient-dense, whole foods diet is a pretty good start!
A mini milestone
Posted in Me, me, me on December 9, 2011 | 16 Comments »
My mother got me this star sapphire ring for Christmas when I was 16 or 17.
I haven’t been able to wear it since I gained all my weight back (and then another 100 lbs) after she died in 1994.
It fits. Yay!
Treating MS with a hunter-gatherer diet
Posted in Ancestral health on December 8, 2011 | 4 Comments »
I was leery to jump on the bandwagon of this video … the last time something was going around like wildfire among the paleo blogosphere it was that ex-vegetarian everyone thought was all that (but wasn’t really). But I fortunately gave in on this one, as it turns out it is very compelling.
In it, Dr. Terry Wahls talks about her experience treating her own MS with a hunter-gatherer (aka a ‘paleo’ diet).
Of course, perhaps I’m biased, because the diet she recommends sounds a a lot like the way I’ve been eating lately! Her daily diet includes:
- 3 c of green leaves
- 3 c of sulfur-rich vegetables
- 3 c of bright colors
- grass-fed meat
- organ meat
- seaweed
I probably need to work on increasing some of these (I’m doing far less than 9 cups of fruits and veggies a day!) but otherwise I have been featuring each of these in my diet regularly.
Yay for micronutrients ;).
About
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our modern culture -- especially diet. Beth writes about ancestral health, health policy, & mindfulness. And cats! More »
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